HUltam  ®ti«J»alt 


y 


BR  350  ,T8  D34  1905 
Dallmann,  William,  1862- 

1952. 
William  Tyndale 


Painting  in  Hertford  College,  Oxford 
WILLIAM  TYNDALE 


'^2  1941 


:i.e 


Sngltalj  Itbb 


MtlUam  lallmann 


Jffourtli  Ebitiott.  %puiaeli 


►i^ 


nUMED  IN  U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  TYNDALE'S  LIFE  IN  ENGLAND  9 

II.  TYNDALE'S  WORK  IN  GERMANY  26 

III,  TYNDALE'S  DEATH  IN  HOLLAND       ..  47 

IV.  TYNDALE'S  INFLUENCE  63 


[51 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Tyndale - -- -  Frontispiece 

Erasmus  10 

Home  of  Sir  John  Walsh  ._ 13 

John  Cochlaeus  15 

Sir  Harry  Guildford  20 

Bishop  Tunstal  22 

Henry  VIII  39 

Thomas   More   - 43 

Sir  Thomas  Elyot  48 

Charles  V  50 

Tyndale   Betrayed   52 

Castle  of  Vilvorde  54 

Autograph  of  Tyndale  56 

Tyndale  Strangled  and  Burned  58 

Miles  Coverdale,  Bishop  of  Exeter  64 

Archbishop   Cranmer   66 

First  Reading  of  Bible  in  St.  Paul's,  1541 68 

Edward  VI  70 

Bloody  Mary  .-. 72 

Queen  Elizabeth 73 

Tyndale  Monument  75 

James  I - 77 

Statue  of  Tyndale  in  London  78 


[71 


WILLIAM  TYNDALE 


CHAPTER  ONE 
TYNDALE'S  LIFE  IN  ENGLAND 

1.  Tyndale  at  School 

William  Tyndale  was  born  about  1494 
in  Gloucestershire,  near  Wales. 

About  1506  he  went  to  Magdalen  Hall, 
Oxford,  and  became  Bachelor  of  Arts  July  4, 
1512,  and  Master  of  Arts  July  2,  1515. 

Tyndale  read  the  Greek  New  Testament 
with  students  of  the  college.  Grocyn  had 
learned  Greek  in  Italy  and  was  the  first  to 
teach  it  in  Oxford  in  1492.  But  the  party 
of  the  "Trojans"  opposed  the  study  of  Greek. 
One  of  the  colleges  had  forbidden  the  en- 
trance of  the  Greek  New  Testament  within 
its  walls  "by  horse  or  by  boat,  by  wheels 
or  on  foot."  Richard  Croke,  professor  of 
Greek  at  Leipzig,  came  back  to  Cambridge 
in  1518  to  teach  Greek.  About  1519  Tyndale 
went  to  Cambridge,  where  Erasmus  was 
teaching  Greek  and  editing  his  Greek  New 
Testament.  In  1520  the  magnificent  Wolsey 
made  his  triumphal  visit  to  Cambridge  and 
was  greeted  with  a  most  fulsome  eulogy. 
[91 


Holbein 


[10] 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


Early  next  year  Luther's  works  were  burned 
at  Paul's  Cross  in  London,  and  at  the  Easter 
term  they  were  burned  at  Cambridge  —  the 
cost  for  "drinks,"  etc.,  was  two  shillings. 

2.  Tyndale  a  Tutor 

About  1522  we  find  Tyndale  as  tutor  in 
the  family  of  Sir  John  Walsh  at  Little  Sud- 
bury, in  Gloucestershire,  twelve  miles  north- 
east of  Bristol,  who  had  been  the  king's 
champion  at  the  coronation  of  Henry  VIIL 

"The  continuous  stream  of  Lutheran 
literature"  began  to  pour  into  English  sea- 
ports in  1521.  Lutheran  books,  though  rig- 
orously prohibited,  were  probably  not  un- 
known amongst  the  imports  that  floated  up 
the  Avon  to  the  warehouses  of  the  Bristol 
merchants.  "There  was  talk  of  learning  as 
well  of  Luther  and  Erasmus  Roterodamus 
as*  of  opinions  in  the  Scriptures.  The  said 
Master  Tyndale  being  learned  and  which  had 
been  a  student  of  divinity  in  Cambridge,  and 
did  many  times  therein  shew  his  mind  and 
learning."  Sir  John  kept  a  good  table, 
and  the  clergy  were  often  invited.  Tyndale 
had  an  uncomfortable  way  of  crushing  his 
opponents  by  clinching  his  arguments  with 
chapter  and  verse  of  the  Bible.  As  a  result 
[111 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


they  began  to  hate  him  and  stayed  away 
from  the  good  dinners  of  Master  Walsh  rather 
than  have  the  "sour  sauce"  of  Tyndale's 
arguments.  The  clergy  were  very  ignorant. 
A  visitation  at  Salisbury  in  1222  showed  five 
out  of  seventeen  clergymen  could  not  trans- 
late the  words  of  consecration  of  the  Mass. 
Nearly  three  hundred  years  later  Archbishop 
Warham  complained  the  Canterbury  monks 
"are  wholly  ignorant  of  what  they  read"  in 
the  divine  service.  A  generation  later,  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  Bishop  Hooper  of 
Gloucester  examined  311  clergy;  of  these 
168  were  unable  to  repeat  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, 31  could  not  tell  where  they 
came  from,  40  were  unable  to  repeat  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  about  40  could  not  name  the 
author. 

In  1408  Archbishop  Arundel  had  the  Con- 
vocation of  Canterbury  expressly  forbid  any 
man  to  translate  any  part  of  the  Scriptures 
into  English  or  to  read  such  translation  with- 
out authority  of  the  bishop,  an  authority  not 
likely  to  be  granted.  The  Bible  was  not 
even  a  part  of  the  preparatory  study  of 
the  preachers.  Writing  against  Alexander 
Alesius  to  James  V  of  Scotland,  Cochlaeus, 
the  notorious  Romish  theologian,  says:    "The 

[121 


[131 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


New  Testament  translated  into  the  language 
of  the  people  is  in  truth  the  food  of  death, 
the  fuel  of  sin,  the  veil  of  malice,  the  pretext 
of  false  liberty,  the  protection  of  disobe- 
dience, the  corruption  of  discipline,  the  de- 
pravity of  morals,  the  termination  of  con- 
cord, the  death  of  honesty,  the  well-spring 
of  vices,  the  disease  of  virtues,  the  instiga- 
tion of  rebellion,  the  milk  of  pride,  the  nour- 
ishment of  contempt,  the  death  of  peace,  the 
destruction  of  charity,  the  enemy  of  unity, 
the  murderer  of  truth!" 

In  1529  Latimer,  at  Cambridge,  in  his  two 
famous  "Sermons  on  the  Card,"  urged  the 
translation  and  universal  reading  of  the 
Bible.  Prior  Buckenham  objected  in  a  ser- 
mon on  "Christmas  Dice":  "Where  Scrip- 
true  saith,  'No  man  that  layeth  his  hand  to 
the  plough  and  looketh  back  is  meet  for  the 
kingdom  of  God,'  will  not  the  ploughman, 
when  he  readeth  these  words,  be  apt  forth- 
with to  cease  from  his  plough,  and  then 
where  will  be  the  sowing  and  harvest? 
Likewise,  also,  whereas  the  baker  readeth, 
'A  little  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump,' 
will  he  not  forthwith  be  too  sparing  in  the 
use  of  leaven,  to  the  great  injury  of  our 
health?    And  so,  also,  when  the  simple  man 

[141 


JOHN  COCHLAEUS 


[151 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


reads  the  words  'If  thine  eye  offend  thee, 
pluck  it  out  and  cast  it  from  thee,'  incon- 
tinent he  will  pluck  out  his  eyes,  and  so  the 
whole  realm  will  be  full  of  blind  men,  to 
the  great  decay  of  the  nation  and  the  mani- 
fest loss  of  the  king's  grace.  And  thus,  by 
reading  of  Holy  Scriptures,  will  the  whole 
kingdom  be  in  confusion."  (Demaus,  Life 
of  Latimer,  p.  77.) 

"Some  years  before  the  rise  of  the  Lu- 
theran heresy  there  was  in  morals  no  disci- 
pline, in  sacred  literature  no  erudition,  in 
divine  things  no  reverence;  religion  was 
almost  extinct,"  are  the  words  of  Cardinal 
Bellarmine. 

So  it  need  not  surprise  us  that  Tyndale 
was  soon  suspected  of  heresy  when  he  al- 
ways proved  his  points  with  the  Bible.  The 
outspoken  young  scholar  caused  many  an 
uneasy  hour  to  Lady  Walsh,  who  would  re- 
mind him  that  bishops  and  abbots  having 
an  income  of  hundreds  of  pounds  yearly  held 
views  the  very  opposite  of  his;  and  "were 
it  reason,  think  you,  that  we  should  believe 
you  before  them?"  Of  course  it  was  difficult 
for  a  moneyless  young  scholar  to  answer 
such  an  argument  from  such  a  source.  In 
order   to    strengthen   his   position   with   his 

fl6] 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


wavering  hostess  by  the  testimony  of  Eras- 
mus, whose  fame  was  resounding  through 
Europe,  Tyndale  translated  his  Handbook  of 
a  Christian  Soldier,  and  Sir  John  Walsh  and 
his  lady  were  won  over  to  his  opinions,  and 
the  clergy  were  no  more  invited. 

3.  Tyndale  Preaches 

Tyndale  often  preached  in  the  near-by 
little  church  of  St.  Adeline  and  even  on 
St.  Austin's  Green  of  Bristol.  His  preaching 
was  fiercely  attacked  by  the  clergy.  "These 
blind  and  rude  priests,  flocking  together  to 
the  ale-house,  —  for  that  was  their  preach- 
ing-place,—  raged  and  railed  against  him, 
affirming  that  his  sayings  were  heresy,  add- 
ing moreover  unto  his  sayings,  of  their  own 
heads,  more  than  ever  he  spake." 

4.  Tyndale  is  Tried 

Tyndale  was  secretly  accused  to  Chan- 
cellor John  Bell,  and  preparations  to  con- 
demn him  were  quietly  made.  Summoned 
to  appear,  Tyndale  went,  though  fearing  that 
evil  was  intended,  and  "prayed  in  his  mind 
heartily  to  God  to  strengthen  him  to  stand 
fast  in  the  truth  of  His  Word."  "When 
I  came  before  the  Chancellor,  he  threatened 
me  grievously  and  reviled  me  and  rated  me 

Tyndale  117] 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


as  though  I  had  been  a  dog."  But  Tyndale's 
defense  seems  to  have  been  ably  conducted, 
for  he  left  the  court  neither  branded  as  a 
heretic  nor  even  forced  to  swear  off  any- 
thing; "folk  were  glad  to  take  all  to  the 
best,"  as  Sir  Thomas  More  wrote. 

5.  Tyndale  Does  Some  Thinking 

Tyndale  thought  long  and  hard  why  the 
clergy  should  oppose  so  violently  the  opin- 
ions taken  from  the  Bible  and  in  his  doubts 
consulted  "a  certain  doctor  that  had  been 
an  old  chancellor  before  to  a  bishop,"  prob- 
ably William  Latimer,  the  Oxford  Humanist. 
His  doubts  were  resolved  in  a  most  unex- 
pected manner.  "Do  you  not  know,"  said 
the  Doctor,  "that  the  Pope  is  the  very  Anti- 
christ which  the  Scripture  speaketh  of?  But 
beware  what  you  say;  for  if  you  shall  be 
perceived  to  be  of  that  opinion,  it  will  cost 
you  your  life.  I  have  been  an  officer  of  his, 
but  I  have  given  it  up  and  defy  him  and  all 
his  works." 

Convinced  of  this,  Tyndale  was  also  con- 
vinced that,  to  save  the  Church,  the  com- 
mon people  must  have  the  Bible  in  their 
own  tongue.  He  was  no  dreamer  or  fanatic; 
with  a  clear  eye  he  saw  the  seat  of  trouble, 

[181 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


and  with  a  glowing  heart  and  firm  will  he 
set  about  to  seek  the  only  remedy.  "I  per- 
ceived how  that  it  was  impossible  to  estab- 
lish the  lay  people  in  any  truth  except  the 
Scripture  were  plainly  laid  before  their  eyes 
in  their  mother  tongue  that  they  might  see 
the  process,  order,  and  meaning  of  the  text." 
"In  this  they  be  all  agreed,  to  drive  you 
from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scripture  and 
that  ye  shall  not  have  the  text  thereof  in 
the  mother  tongue  and  to  keep  the  world 
still  in  darkness,  to  the  intent  they  might  sit 
in  the  consciences  of  the  people  through  vain 
superstition  and  false  doctrine,  to  satisfy 
their  filthy  lusts,  their  proud  ambition,  and 
unsatiable  covetousness  and  to  exalt  their 
own  honor  above  king  and  emperor,  yea, 
above  God  Himself,  .  .  .  which  thing  only 
moved  me  to  translate  the  New  Testament." 
"Communing  and  disputing,"  says  Fox, 
"with  a  certain  learned  man,  he  drove  him 
to  that  issue  that  the  learned  man  said,  'We 
were  better  to  be  without  God's  laws  than 
the  Pope's.'  Master  Tyndale  hearing  that, 
answered  him,  'I  defy  the  Pope  and  all  his 
laws,'  and  added.  If  God  spare  my  life,  ere 
many  years  I  will  cause  a  boy  that  driveth 
the  plow  shall  know  more  of  the  Scripture 
119] 


SIR  HARRY  GUILDFORD 


1201 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


than  thou  doest.' "  This  became  known; 
the  priests  waxed  fiercer  in  their  opposition; 
they  charged  him  with  heresy;  they  hinted 
at  burning  him. 

6.  Tyndale  Goes  to  London 

With  an  introduction  to  Sir  John's  friend, 
Sir  Harry  Guildford,  Controller  of  the  Royal 
Household,  Tyndale  in  1523  went  to  London 
to  see  the  new  bishop,  Cuthbert  Tunstal, 
whom  Erasmus  had  praised  for  his  love  of 
learning.  As  proof  of  his  scholarship  Tyn- 
dale took  with  him  "an  oration  of  Isocrates 
which  I  had  translated  out  of  greke  in  to 
English." 

Two  years  before  Tyndale's  arrival  in 
London  it  was  discovered  that  Luther's  books 
had  been  imported  in  such  numbers  that 
Wolsey  required  all  to  deUver  up  the  works 
of  the  arch-heretic  to  the  church  authorities; 
yet  the  books  were  brought  in  by  the  mer- 
chants who  traded  with  the  Low  Countries. 
Henry  himself,  who  loved  theological  con- 
troversy and  prided  himself  on  his  ortho- 
doxy, had  written  against  Luther  and  been 
rewarded  for  his  zeal  by  the  title  of  "De- 
fender of  the  Faith,"  still  fondly  cherished 
as  the  most  honorable  of  all  the  distinctions 
of  the  English  sovereigns. 

[21] 


r^s.vv 

I^L 

r    ■   d 

^V 

\    ^ 

f 

I     i 

L>i:j--^.',>,^ ..  ,    .  ^ 

1 

1 

BISHOP  TUNSTAL 


122] 


Tyndale's  Life  in  Etigland 


The  example  of  the  king  was,  of  course, 
followed  by  the  clergy;  the  pulpits  re- 
sounded with  fierce  denunciations  of  the 
"detestable  and  damnable  heresies"  of  that 
"child  of  the  devil"  who  had  ventured  to 
resist  the  authority  of  the  Pope.  The  atten- 
tion of  Parliament  was  directed  to  the  re- 
ported spread  of  Lutheranism  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge,  and  it  was  proposed  to 
search  the  suspected  colleges,  which,  how- 
ever, Wolsey  forbade. 

Until  he  could  see  Tunstal,  Tyndale 
preached  in  St.  Dunstan's-in-the-West,  cor- 
ner of  the  Strand  and  Fleet  Street,  and 
greatly  impressed  Humphrey  Monmouth, 
a  wealthy,  educated,  and  traveled  cloth 
merchant,  later  an  alderman  and  a  sheriff, 
who  lived  near  the  Tower.  Tyndale  gained 
the  sympathy  of  the  generous  merchant, 
who  himself  had  begun  "to  be  a  Scripture- 
man"  and  whose  special  pleasure  it  was  to 
assist  needy  scholars. 

Tunstal  accorded  an  interview  to  Tyn- 
dale, acknowledged  the  scholarship  of  the 
stranger,  but  said  his  house  was  full  and 
advised  the  young  man  to  seek  a  place  else- 
where. 

"The    priest    came    to    me    again,"    says 

[23] 


Tyndale's  Life  in  England 


Monmouth,  "and  besought  me  to  help  him; 
and  so  I  took  him  into  my  house  half  a 
year;  and  there  he  lived  like  a  good  priest, 
as  methought.  He  studied  most  j5art  of  the 
day  and  of  the  night  at  his  book;  and  he 
would  eat  but  sodden  meat  by  his  good  will 
and  drink  but  small  single  beer.  I  never 
saw  him  wear  linen  about  him  in  the  space 
he  was  with  me.  I  did  promise  him  ten 
pounds  sterling  to  pray  for  my  father  and 
mother  their  souls  and  all  Christian  souls." 
For  this  kindness  to  Tyndale,  Monmouth 
was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower.  Sir  Thomas 
More,  while  fiercely  fighting  Tyndale's  doc- 
trines, admits  that  "before  he  went  over  the 
sea,  he  was  well  known  for  a  man  of  right 
good  living,  studious  and  well  learned  in  the 
Scripture,  and  looked  and  preached  holily." 
Monmouth  bought  and  studied  the  works 
of  Luther  and  had  all  the  usual  marks  of 
the  "detestable  sect  of  Lutherans."  Hither- 
to Tyndale  "seems  to  have  looked  up  to 
Erasmus  as  the  great  light  and  guide  of  the 
age  and  the  true  reformer  of  religion;  now 
he  heard  of  a  greater  Reformer,  whose  words 
of  more  impressive  eloquence,  and,  still 
more,  whose  conduct  of  more  resolute  de- 
termination,   had    achieved    what    Erasmus 

[24] 


Tyndcde's  Life  in  Erigland 


had  rather  recommended  than  attempted.  .  .  . 
There  can  be  no  question  that  from  this  time 
onwards  Luther  occupied  the  highest  place 
in  his  esteem  and  exercised  very  consider- 
able influence  over  his  opinions,"  says 
Demaus. 

Tyndale  saw  men  led  to  prison  and  to 
death  for  having  Luther's  writings,  and  he 
knew  well  a  Bible  translation  would  be  still 
more  dangerous.  At  last  the  simple-minded 
scholar  "understood  not  only  that  there  was 
no  room  in  my  lord  of  London's  palace  to 
translate  the  New  Testament,  but  also,  that 
there  was  no  place  to  do  it  in  all  England." 
Tyndale  was  not  the  man  to  put  his  hand 
to  the  plow  and  then  draw  back;  if  only 
a  life  of  exile  could  do  the  work,  a  Hfe  of 
exile  he  would  accept.  "To  give  the  people 
the  bare  text  of  Scripture,  he  would  offer 
his  body  to  suffer  what  pain  or  torture,  yea, 
what  death  His  Grace  [Henry  VIII]  would, 
so  that  this  be  obtained." 


[251 


CHAPTER  TWO 
TYNDALE'S  WORK  IN  GERMANY 

About  May,  1524,  Tyndale  sailed  to  Ham- 
burg, unto  "poverty,  mine  exile  out  of  mine 
natural  country,  and  bitter  absence  from 
my  friends,  the  hunger,  the  thirst,  the  cold, 
the  great  danger  wherewith  I  was  every- 
where compassed,  the  innumerable  other 
hard  and  sharp  fightings  which  I  had  to 
endure." 

1.  Tyndale  at  Wittenberg 

Wittenberg  was  "the  common  asylum  of 
all  apostates,"  as  Duke  George  of  Saxony 
styled  it;  "the  little  town  which  had  sud- 
denly become  the  sacred  city  of  the  Refor- 
mation," as  Green  puts  it,  rightly;  for 
Scultetus  says  of  certain  travelers,  "as  they 
came  in  sight  of  the  town,  they  returned 
thanks  to  God  with  clasped  hands,  for  from 
Wittenberg,  as  heretofore  from  Jerusalem, 
the  light  of  evangelical  truth  had  spread  to 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 

"Guillelmus  Daltici  ex  Anglia"  registered 
at  Wittenberg  on  May  27,  1524  —  none  other 
than  William  Tyndale.  On  the  30th  we  find 
the  name  of  Matthias  von  Emersen  of  Ham- 
burg, nephew  of  widow  Margaret  von  Emer- 

[26] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


sen,  who  entertained  Tyndale.  "Guilhelmus 
Roy  ex  Londino"  registered  on  June  10, 
1525  —  William  Roy,  Tyndale's  helper. 

At  Wittenberg,  Tyndale  "had  conference 
with  Luther  and  other  learned  men  in  those 
parts,"  Fox  says.  Free  from  danger,  Tyn- 
dale settled  down  to  his  life-work.  He  used 
the  1522,  third,  edition  of  Erasmus's  Greek 
New  Testament  and  "systematically  con- 
sulted" Luther's  German  New  Testament. 
Froude  says  Tyndale  translated  under  Lu- 
ther's "immediate  direction,"  and  Green 
speaks  of  "Tyndale's  Lutheran  translation." 

2.  Tyndale  at  Cologne 

In  the  spring  of  1525  Tyndale  went  to 
Hamburg  to  send  to  Monmouth  for  the  ten 
pounds  left  with  him,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  sent  "a  little  treatise,"  Bugenhagen's 
Letter  to  the  English? 

Hans  Collenbeck  brought  the  money,  and 
Tyndale  and  Roy  went  to  Cologne,  where 
Peter  Quentel  was  to  print  three  thousand 
copies. 

John  Cochlaeus,   whom   the  papists   call 

"the  scourge  of  Luther,"  was  in  Cologne  and 

heard  the   printers   boast   that   all   England 

in   a    short   time    would   become    Lutheran. 

[27] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


"Inviting,  therefore,  some  printers  to  his 
lodgings,  after  they  were  excited  with  wine, 
one  of  them  in  private  conversation  dis- 
closed to  him  the  secret  by  which  England 
was  to  be  drawn  over  to  the  party  of  Luther, 
viz.,  that  there  were  at  that  very  time  in  the 
press  3,000  copies  of  the  Lutheran  New 
Testament,  translated  into  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  that  they  had  advanced  as  far 
as  the  letter  K  in  the  order  of  the  sheets." 
These  are  Tyndale's  "Matthew  and  Mark," 
of  which  we  read. 

Cochlaeus  got  Hermann  Rinck,  a  senator 
of  Cologne,  well  known  to  the  Emperor  and 
the  King  of  England,  to  procure  the  order 
to  stop  the  printing,  and  the  King,  Cardinal 
Wolsey,  and  Fisher,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
were  warned  by  Cochlaeus  to  keep  a  sharp 
lookout  in  all  the  seaports  of  England  "to 
prevent  the  importation  of  the  pernicious 
merchandise." 

3.  Tyndale  at  Wonns 

About  October,  1525,  Tyndale  fled  to 
Worms,  "full  of  the  rage  of  Lutheranism," 
according  to  Cochlaeus,  and  Peter  Schoeffer 
printed  three  thousand  octavo   Testaments. 

Tyndale's  New  Testament  is  often  called 

[28] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


"Luther's  New  Testament  in  English."  Why? 
1.  Compare  Luther's  German  Testament  of 
September,  1522,  with  Tyndale's  English 
Testament  of  1525,  and  it  is  clear  at  a  glance 
that  Tyndale's  is  Luther's  in  miniature:  the 
appearance  of  the  page,  the  arrangement  of 
the  text,  the  inner  margin  for  the  references 
and  the  outer  one  for  the  explanations,  the 
"pestilent  glosses" — all  are  the  same.  2.  The 
"pestilent  glosses,"  as  Henry  VIII  called 
them,  or  marginal  notes  of  Tyndale's,  are 
literally  taken  from  Luther  or  reproduced 
from  Luther;  some  are  original  with  Tyn- 
dale.  3.  The  translation  is  from  the  original 
Greek,  but  Luther's  was  used  systematically. 
4.  In  Tyndale's  prolog  many  passages  have 
been  borrowed  from  Luther,  "as  the  reader 
speedily  begins  to  suspect  from  the  charac- 
teristic ring  of  the  sentences."  Two  pages 
are  taken  almost  word  for  word  from  Lu- 
ther. A  comparison  of  the  two  "fully  justi- 
fies the  assertion  that  he  reproduced  in 
English  Luther's  German  Testament,"  as  the 
Athenaeum  says. 

Dr.  Edward  Lee,  the  King's  almoner,  on 
December  2,  1525,  wrote  Henry  VIII  from 
Bordeaux:  "An  Englishman,  at  the  solicita- 
tion and  instance  of  Luther,  with  whom  he 

129] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


is,  hath  translated  the  New  Testament  into 
English  and  within  a  few  days  intendeth  to 
return  with  the  same  imprinted  into  England. 
I  need  not  to  advertise  Your  Grace  what 
infection  and  danger  may  ensue  hereby  if 
it  be  not  withstanded.  This  is  the  next 
[nearest]  way  to  fulfil  [fill  full]  your  realm 
with  Lutherans.  For  all  Luther's  opinions 
be  grounded  upon  bare  words  of  Scrip- 
ture. .  .  .  All  our  forefathers,  governors  of 
the  Church  of  England,  have  with  all  dili- 
gence forbid  English  Bibles.  .  .  .  The  in- 
tegritj^  of  the  Christian  faith  within  your 
realm  cannot  long  endure  if  these  books  may 
come  in." 

In  vain  all  warnings.  Early  in  1526  both 
editions  were  smuggled  into  England  in  bales 
of  cloth  and  in  sacks  of  flour.  "It  came  as 
part  of  the  Lutheran  movement;  it  bore 
the  Lutheran  stamp  in  its  version  of  eccle- 
siastical words,"  writes  Green.  It  seems 
the  Hansa  merchants  brought  the  books  to 
their  house,  the  Steelyard,  on  the  Thames 
Embankment,  and  then  to  All  Hallows' 
Church  in  Honey  Lane.  From  here  they 
were  spread  by  Dr.  Fornan  and  his  curate, 
Thomas  Garret. 

"The   first   Religious   Tract    Society,"    as 

[30] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


Green  calls  them,  were  the  "Christian  Breth- 
ren," a  society  formed  to  spread  Tyndale's 
New  Testament  and  Luther's  writings,  the 
first  English  Lutheran  Men's  Club  or  Pub- 
licity Bureau. 

George  Herman,  an  Englishman  of  Ant- 
werp, in  1526  sold  the  New  Testaments  to 
Simon  Fish,  a  lawyer,  who  sold  them  to 
Robert  Necton,  many  of  them,  at  sundry 
times,  five  or  ten  at  a  time.  Necton  sold 
seven  in  Suffolk  "for  7  or  8  groats  apiece," 
and  others  in  London.  Richard  Bayfield 
bought  two  unbound  for  3s.  4d.  At  divers 
times  he  sold  15  or  16  to  Constantine. 

About  May,  John  Pykas,  a  baker  of 
Colchester,  "bought  a  New  Testament  in 
English,  and  paid  for  it  four  shillings,  which 
New  Testament  he  kept  and  read  it  througli 
many  times,"  as  he  testified  on  trial  before 
Tunstal,  March  7,  1528,  in  the  chapel  of  that 
very  palace  where  Tyndale  had  in  vain  asked 
the  bishop's  patronage. 

At  Michaelmas,  1526,  John  Tyball  of 
Steeple  Bumstead  in  Essex  and  Thomas 
Hilles  bought  in  London  from  Robert  Barnes 
two  testaments  at  3s.  2d.  each,  and  he  showed 
the  book  to  the  curate  of  the  village. 

[31] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


On  March  15,  1528,  Tunstal  writes  Wolsey 
during  the  past  year  Theodoric,  a  Dutchman 
of  Antwerp,  had  twice  brought  "many  testa- 
ments in  Enghsh." 

John  Raimund,  or  Endhoven,  suppUed 
over  700  English  New  Testaments  to  book- 
seller Francis  Byrkman. 

In  the  summer,  Standish,  bishop  of 
St.  Asaph,  got  hold  of  a  copy  and  brought 
it  to  Cardinal  Wolsey;  it  was  resolved  that 
the  English  New  Testament  should  be  pub- 
licly burned  wherever  discovered.  In  Sep- 
tember Tunstal,  at  Paul's  Cross,  condemned 
the  New  Testament  to  be  burned;  in  Octo- 
ber he  called  it  the  work  of  "many  children 
of  iniquity,  maintainers  of  Luther's  sect, 
bhnded  through  extreme  wickedness,  wan- 
dering from  the  way  of  truth  and  the  Cath- 
olic faith,"  and  he  warned  all  to  deliver  up 
their  English  Testaments;  yet  he  confessed 
in  his  diocese  the  New  Testaments  were 
"thick  spread." 

On  November  21  Cardinal  Campegi  at 
Rome  wrote  Wolsey  he  has  heard  with 
pleasure  of  the  burning  of  the  Bibles  brought 
in  by  "the  abominable  sect";  nothing  "could 
be  more  pleasing  to  Almighty  God." 

It  was  a  safe  business  venture  to  reprint 

[32] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


Tyndale's  translation,  and  before  the  end 
of  1526  Christopher  of  Endhoven  pirated 
two  thousand  copies  at  Antwerp.  Warham 
would  put  an  end  to  the  heretical  book  by 
buying  it  up,  and  he  spent  nearly  seventy 
pounds  (about  $5,000  today)  before  he  gave 
up  the  "gracious  and  blessed  deed,  for  which 
God  should  reward  him  hereafter,"  as  Bishop 
Nix  of  Norwich  prayed;  he  also  contributed 
ten  marks  (about  $500  in  our  money)  to  buy 
and  burn  Bibles  in  1527.  Thomas  Garret, 
a  curate  of  London,  had  Tyndale's  New  Tes- 
tament, which  he  sold  at  Oxford  "to  such  as 
he  knew  to  be  lovers  of  the  Gospel."  Car- 
dinal Wolsey  arrested  him  and  his  friend 
Dalaber  and  flung  the  Bibles  into  the  fire. 

Sure  of  buyers  among  friends  and  ene- 
mies, the  Dutch  printers  again  pirated  an 
edition  of  Tyndale,  and  London  was  once 
more  supplied.  In  1528  John  Ruremond, 
a  Dutchman,  got  into  trouble  by  printing 
1,500  of  Tyndale's  New  Testaments  and 
bringing  500  into  England.  In  1527  it  was 
reported  by  many  that  even  the  king  himself 
"wolde  that  they  shulde  have  the  arroneous 
boks";  and  "marchants  and  such  that  had 
ther  abyding  not  ferre  from  the  see,"  were 
greatly  infected;    and  that  from  the  college 

Tyndale  [33] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


at  Cambridge  which  sent  the  most  priests 
into  his  diocese  not  one  had  come  into  Nor- 
folk lately  "but  saverith  of  the  frying  pan, 
tho'  he  speke  never  so  holely." 

Coming  from  the  Treaty  of  Cambray, 
concluded  August  5,  1529,  which  embraced 
"the  forbidding  to  print  or  sell  any  Lutheran 
books,"  Bishop  Tunstal  stopped  over  at  Ant- 
werp to  seize  Tyndale's  New  Testament. 
Augustine  Packington  offered  to  buy  all 
unsold  copies.  "Gentle  Master  Packington," 
said  the  bishop,  "deemyng  that  he  hadde 
God  by  the  toe,  whanne  in  truthe  he  hadde, 
as  after  he  thought,  the  devyl  by  the  fiste, 
do  your  diligence  and  get  them  for  me;  and 
with  all  my  heart  I  will  pay  for  them  what- 
soever they  cost  you,  for  the  books  are  erro- 
neous and  nought,  and  I  intend  surely  to 
destroy  them  all  and  to  burn  them  at  Paul's 
Cross."  And  so  forward  went  the  bargain: 
the  bishop  had  the  books;  Packington  had 
the  thanks;  Tyndale  had  the  money  —  to 
print  more  Bibles. 

Of  Tyndale's  quarto  fragment  only  a 
single  imperfect  copy  remains;  and  of  the 
three  thousand  octavo,  one,  incomplete,  in 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  the  other,  without 
the  title-page,  in  the  Baptist  College  at 
[34] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


Bristol;  all  the  rest  were  destroyed  by  the 
papists.  It  has  been  estimated  that  about 
30,000  Bibles  were  imported  into  England 
from  1526  to  1536. 

Tyndale  likely  studied  Hebrew  among  the 
Jews  at  Worms,  whose  ancient  synagog  was 
built,  according  to  tradition,  shortly  after 
the  destruction  of  the  Temple  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. Here  Tjnidale  met  Hermann  von 
dem  Busche,  who,  according  to  Spalatin's 
diary  under  date  of  August,  1526,  said  Tyn- 
dale "was  so  learned  in  seven  languages  — 
Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  Spanish,  En- 
glish, French  —  that  in  whichever  he  spoke 
you  would  think  it  was  his  native  tongue." 

Before  the  close  of  1526  Tyndale  printed 
at  Worms  his  famous  Prolog  to  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans.  Robert  Ridley  condemns 
it  as  "full  of  the  most  poisoned  and  abom- 
inable heresies  that  can  be  thought  of,"  and 
Sir  Thomas  More  attacks  it  for  "bringing 
its  readers  into  a  false  understanding  of 
St.  Paul."  Demaus  says:  "Nothing  could 
show  more  strikingly  than  this  work  the 
great  ascendency  which  the  German  Re- 
former had  now  obtained  over  the  mind  of 
Tyndale.  The  Introduction  to  the  Romans 
is  in  truth  hardly  an  original  work  but  is 
[351 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


much  more  correctly  described  as  a  trans- 
lation or  paraphrase  of  Luther's  preface  to 
the  same  epistle." 

4.  Tyndale  at  Marburg 

In  1527  Philip  of  Hessen  founded  the  first 
Protestant  university  at  Marburg.  One  of  the 
professors  was  Hermann  von  dem  Busche, 
a  pupil  of  Reuchlin,  the  first  German 
Hebraist.  Busch  is  said  to  be  the  first 
nobleman  to  forget  his  rank  so  far  as  to 
become  a  teacher  in  the  schools;  he  was 
professor  of  poetry  and  oratory.  He  had 
kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the  English- 
man, and  it  is  supposed  Tyndale  went  to  this 
quiet  inland  city  to  escape  persecution. 

On  May  8,  1528,  Hans  Lufft  printed 
at  "Malborow"  Tyndale's  Parable  of  the 
Wicked  Mamraon,  a  treatise  on  Justifica- 
tion by  Faith.  "The  choice  of  subject  may 
fairly  enough  be  considered  an  indication  of 
the  paramount  influence  which  Luther  now 
exercised  over  the  mind  of  Tyndale;  and 
indeed  there  are  several  striking  similarities 
of  sentiment  and  expression  which  were 
most  certainly  suggested  by  the  writings  of 
the  great  German  Reformer,"  says  Demaus. 
The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  condemned 
[36] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


it  as  "containing  many  detestable  errors 
and  damnable  opinions";  it  was  also  con- 
demned by  a  body  of  prelates  and  doctors 
summoned  by  Henry  VIII;  Sir  Thomas  More 
uniformly  called  it  "The  Wicked  Book  of 
Mammon,"  "a  very  treasury  and  well-spring 
of  wickedness,"  "a  book  by  which  many 
have  been  beguiled  and  brought  into  many 
wicked  heresies." 

At  this  time  there  appeared  also  at  "Mal- 
borow"  The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man. 
It  defends  the  Reformers  from  the  charge 
that  "they  caused  insurrection  and  taught 
the  people  to  disobey  their  heads  and  gov- 
ernors and  to  rise  against  their  princes  and 
to  make  all  common  and  to  make  havoc  of 
other  men's  goods."  In  this  work  Tyndale 
charged  the  papists  with  having  corrupted 
the  Sacraments.  Baptism  and  "the  Sacra- 
ments of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ" 
had  promises  annexed  to  them  and  were 
therefore  true  Sacraments.  "Scripture  hath 
but  one  sense,  which  is  the  literal  sense,  .  .  . 
whereunto  if  thou  cleave,  thou  canst  never 
err  or  go  out  of  the  way.  And  if  thou  leave 
the  literal  sense,  thou  canst  not  but  go  out 
of  the  way."  No  wonder  Sir  Thomas  More 
pours  out  the  vials  of  his  wrath  upon  this 
[371 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


book:  "He  hath  not  only  sowked  out  the 
most  poison  that  he  could  find  through  all 
Luther's  books,  or  take  of  him  by  mouth 
and  all  that  hath  spette  out  in  this  book, 
but  hath  also  in  many  things  far  passed  his 
master." 

This  book  strengthened  the  Lutherans  in 
England:  Bilney  and  Bainham,  for  instance, 
repented  of  their  recantation  and  bore  the 
cruel  death  by  fire  with  remarkable  courage. 
It  also  gave  to  the  Reformers  a  definite  aim 
and  purpose.  It  fell  into  the  hands  of  Anne 
Boleyn,  and  through  her  Henry  VIII  read  it. 
"This  book  is  for  me  and  all  kings  to  read," 
he  said  and  took  into  his  own  hands  the 
reins  of  power  hitherto  held  by  Cardinal 
Wolsey.  Wolsey  founded  Cardinal  College, 
now  Christ  Church,  at  Oxford,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  opposing  Lutheranism,  and  among 
his  last  words  were  for  the  king  "to  depress 
this  new  sect  of  Lutherans." 

In  1529  Tyndale  sailed  from  Antwerp  to 
Hamburg,  was  shipwrecked,  and  lost  every- 
thing. He  came  to  Hamburg,  lodged  with 
widow  Margaret  von  Emersen  from  March  28 
till  December.  Here  Miles  Coverdale  helped 
him  get  out  the  five  books  of  Moses  in 
English.  By  February  Bugenhagen  had 
[38] 


Holbein 


HENRY  VIII 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


established   Lutheranism   in   Hamburg,   and 
so  Tyndale  was  safe  there  now. 

Tyndale's  translation  of  the  five  books  of 
Moses  "v^as  "Emprented  at  Malborow  in  the 
lande  of  Hesse  by  me  Hans  Luft  the  yere 
of  our  Lorde  M.CCCCC.XXX.  the  XVII 
dayes  of  Januarij."  Tyndale  followed  Lot- 
ter's  edition  of  Luther's  translation,  though 
not  with  the  "slavish  deference  of  a  copyist, 
as  he  is  sometimes  said  to  have  done."  In 
the  glosses  "the  spirit  and  even  the  style  of 
Luther  is  distinctly  visible,"  says  Westcott. 
"Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  if  Tyn- 
dale had  in  this  matter  more  closely  fol- 
lowed his  German  predecessor;  for  the 
greatest  of  Tyndale's  admirers  must  admit 
that  his  keen  sarcasms  are  by  no  means  so 
suitable  an  accompaniment  to  the  sacred 
text  as  Luther's  topographical  and  exposi- 
tory notes,"  says  Demaus.  Some  called  him 
"nothing  more  than  an  English  echo  of  the 
great  German  heresiarch."  "Those  best  ac- 
quainted with  the  theology  of  the  English 
Reformation  will  be  the  first  to  admit  that 
we  shall  look  in  vain  in  Cranmer,  Latimer, 
or  Ridley  for  any  such  clearness  of  appre- 
hension and  precision  as  here  displayed  by 
Tyndale." 

[40] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


In  May,  1530,  Bishop  Nix  of  Norwich 
begged  the  king  to  kill  the  rumor  he  fa- 
vored the  New  Testament;  otherwise  he 
could  not  check  the  growing  Lutheranism 
in  his  diocese.  The  king  called  some  thirty 
divines  to  Westminster,  and  on  the  24th  they 
condemned  the  free  circulation  of  Old  or 
New  Testament.  The  next  day  the  king  in 
the  Star  Chamber  said  it  was  not  necessary 
for  the  commons  to  have  the  Bible  in 
English;  at  present  it  would  only  do  harm. 
Within  fifteen  days  all  copies  were  to  be 
given  up  to  the  church  officers.  In  the  same 
month  Tunstal  made  another  big  bonfire  of 
New  Testaments  and  other  Lutheran  books. 
From  the  Reichstag  at  Augsburg  Cardinal 
Campegi  on  June  28  wrote  King  Henry  so 
worthy  a  deed  added  great  glory  to  his  name. 

Six  months  later  Latimer  wrote  the  king 
three  or  four  of  the  divines  had  favored  the 
English  Bible  but  were  overborne  by  the 
majority. 

In  November  Tyndale's  brother  John, 
Thomas  Patmore,  and  a  young  man  living 
near  London  Bridge  were  jailed  by  Chan- 
cellor Thomas  More  for  "receiving  of  Tyn- 
dale's testaments  and  divers  other  books  and 
delivering  and  scattering  the  same."     Each 

141] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


of  them  was  set  upon  a  horse,  and  their 
faces  to  the  horse's  tail,  and  paraded  to  the 
Standard  in  Chepe,  where  they  threw  their 
said  books  into  a  great  fire.  They  were 
fined,  Patmore  100  pounds. 

Early  in  March  Tyndale's  friend  Thomas 
Hitton  was  burned.  His  soul  went  "straight 
from  the  short  fire  to  the  fire  eternal.  .  .  . 
The  devil's  stinking  martyr,"  writes  St.  Sir 
Thomas  More. 

In  August  little  Bilney  perished  in  the 
flames. 

Richard  Bayfield  of  Cambridge  three 
times  brought  great  loads  of  New  Testaments 
into  England,  also  five  of  Luther's  works, 
five  of  Melanchthon's,  four  of  Brenz's,  three 
of  Bugenhagen's,  and  others.  In  November 
Sir  Thomas  More  seized  a  load.  About 
Easter,  1531,  he  was  betrayed  by  George 
Constantine  and  burned  on  December  4. 

John  Tewkesbury,  a  leather  merchant, 
perished  in  the  same  month  in  the  same 
manner  for  the   same   offense. 

In  January,  1532,  Thomas  Dusgate,  or 
Benet,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  was  burned. 
In  March  Hugh  Latimer  was  arrested. 
Through  one  Hacker  over  hundred  Bible - 
readers  were  punished. 

[42] 


THOMAS  MORE 


1431 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


The  bitterest  of  all  Tyndale's  writings  is 
his  Practice  of  Prelates,  a  sort  of  historical 
summary  of  the  "practices"  by  which  Pope 
and  clergy  gradually  grew  up  from  poverty 
and  humility  into  that  universal  supremacy 
enjoyed  by  them  in  Tyndale's  time. 

On  March  7,  1528,  Bishop  Tunstal  licensed 
Sir  Thomas  More,  his  "Demosthenes,"  to 
read  the  books  of  Lutheran  heresy  and  reply 
to  them.  More  attacked  "the  pestilent  sect 
of  Luther  and  Tyndale"  in  his  Dialogue  and 
in  1531  Tyndale  printed  in  Amsterdam  his 
Answer  in  defense  of  the  Reformation.  More 
felt  constrained  to  reply  in  his  Confutation 
in  May,  1532,  and  the  work  of  opposing  Tyn- 
dale kept  him  busy  till  the  day  of  his  death: 
in  all  he  wrote  about  one  thousand  folio 
pages  against  the  Reformer.  The  Confuta- 
tion is  extremely  tedious  and  virulent  — 
"Not  to  speak  of  the  ribald  abuse  poured 
forth  in  season  and  out  of  season  upon  Lu- 
ther, the  language  applied  to  Tyndale  is 
altogether  unpardonable,"  says  Demaus. 

A  few  years  before  Tyndale  had  left 
England  poor  and  unknown;  now  his  fame 
resounded  through  all  England.  Sir  Thomas 
More,  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  chief 
legal  adviser  of  Henry  VIII  at  a  most  mo- 
[441 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


mentous  crisis  in  English  history,  felt  com- 
pelled to  write  against  Tyndale.  What 
stronger  proof  of  Tyndale's  power  could  be 
asked?  According  to  Anthony  Wood,  More 
was  "one  of  the  greatest  prodigies  of  wit 
and  learning  that  England  ever  before  his 
time  had  produced,"  and  Tyndale  entered 
the  arena  against  him  and  in  several  impor- 
tant points  remained  master  of  the  field. 
More  had  vowed,  "I  shall  leave  Tyndale 
never  a  dark  corner  to  creep  into  able  to 
hide  his  head  in."  Now  he  had  to  confess, 
"Men  thought  his  Confutation  overlong  and 
therefore  tedious  to  read,"  a  sad  confession 
that  the  great  wit  of  the  age  and  chancellor 
of  the  realm  had  gotten  the  worst  of  the 
controversy. 

In  1532  The  Exposition  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  was  printed,  the  ablest  of  Tyn- 
dale's expository  works.  George  Joy  says 
that  in  reality  "Luther  made  it,  Tyndale 
only  but  translating  and  powdering  it  here 
and  there  with  his  own  fantasies."  "The 
coincidences  between  Tyndale's  Exposition 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  that  of 
Luther,  though  fewer,  are  even  more  worthy 
of  notice"  than  usual,  says  Westcott.  This 
great  scholar  also  speaks  of  the  "profound 

145] 


Tyndale's  Work  in  Germany 


influence  which  Luther  exerted  upon  his 
[Tyndale's]  writings  generally.  The  extent 
to  which  Tyndale  silently  incorporated  free 
or  even  verbal  translations  of  passages  from 
Luther's  works  in  his  own  has  escaped  the 
notice  of  his  editors.  .  .  .  Tyndale's  Prolog 
to  his  quarto  Testament,  his  first  known 
writing,  almost  at  the  beginning  introduces 
a  large  fragment  from  Luther's  Preface  to 
the  New  Testament.  There  is  indeed  a  ring 
in  the  opening  words  which  might  have  led 
any  one  familiar  with  Luther's  style  to 
suspect  their  real  source." 

When  the  plague  visited  Germany  in  1530 
and  carried  off  Francis  Lambert  of  the  Mar- 
burg University,  a  devoted  friend  of  Tyn- 
dale, the  Englishman  left  Marburg  and  went 
to  Antwerp. 


[46] 


CHAPTER  THREE 
TYNDALE'S  DEATH  IN  HOLLAND 

On  June  18, 1528,  Wolsey  ordered  Ambas- 
sador John  Hackett  to  have  the  ringleaders 
of  the  EngHsh  Lutherans  abroad  arrested. 
The  EngHsh  merchant  Richard  Herman, 
a  citizen  of  Antwerp,  was  jailed,  but  Tyndale 
escaped.  Friars  John  West  and  Flegh  and 
senator  Hermann  Rinck  of  Koeln  also  failed 
to  find  Tyndale. 

In  November,  1530,  Cromwell  sent  Ste- 
phen Vaughan  to  get  Tyndale  to  come  back 
to  England.  The  reformer  refused;  he  did 
not  trust  the  king's  promises.  Any  wonder? 
Tyndale's  learned  friend  William  Tracy,  in 
his  will  of  October  5,  1530,  confessed  his 
belief  in  salvation  through  Christ  alone, 
rejected  all  other  mediators,  would  bestow 
no  money  for  the  buying  of  prayers  for  his 
soul.     His  body  was  dug  up  and  burned! 

The  new  ambassador  to  the  kaiser,  Sir 
Thomas  Elyot,  was  ordered  to  take  Tyndale 
forcibly  and  send  him  to  England  for  punish- 
ment. Easily  said,  not  easily  done.  More 
tells  Erasmus  that  Tyndale,  "the  heretic  of 
our  land,  is  in  exile  both  nowhere  and  every- 
where." With  Cranmer  at  the  Reichstag  at 
[471 


SIR  THOMAS  ELYOT 


Holbein 


148J 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


Regensburg  in  1532,  Elyot  writes  Norfolk  on 
March  14,  as  Tyndale  "is  in  wit  movable, 
semblably  so  is  his  person  uncertain  to 
come  by." 

Richard  Herman  was  jailed  for  eight 
months  1528 — 9  for  supporting  Tyndale  and 
helping  "to  the  setting  forth  of  the  New 
Testament  in  English."  In  1534  he  begged 
Queen  Anne  Boleyn  to  be  restored  to  his 
privileges.  On  May  14  the  queen  asked 
Cromwell  to  restore  him. 

In  November,  1534,  came  the  revised 
second  edition  of  the  New  Testament  — 
"Tyndale's  noblest  monument."  The  prologs 
and  glosses  "have  to  a  considerable  extent 
been  translated  from  the  German  of  Luther." 

An  edition  de  luxe,  printed  on  vellum, 
with  capitals  and  woodcuts  illuminated,  on 
its  gold  edges  inscribed  in  red  paint,  one  on 
each  face,  the  three  words  Anna  Regina 
Angliae,  was  gratefully  sent  to  the   queen. 

Ever  since  the  middle  of  1534  Tyndale 
had  found  a  home  with  Thomas  Poyntz  at 
Antwerp  in  "The  English  House,"  granted 
to  the  English  merchants  with  special  priv- 
ileges as  far  back  as  1474.  Tyndale  also 
practiced  what  he  preached:  justification 
produced   sanctification.      "He   reserved   for 

Tyndale  [49] 


CHARLES  V 


1501 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


himself  two  days  in  the  week  which  he 
named  his  days  of  pastime,  namely,  Mon- 
day and  Saturday."  One  was  devoted  to 
relieving  English  refugees;  on  the  other  "he 
walked  round  about  the  town,  seeking  out 
every  corner  and  hole  where  he  suspected 
any  poor  person  to  dwell,  and  where  he 
found  any  to  be  well  occupied  and  yet 
overburdened  with  children  or  else  aged  or 
weak,  those  also  he  plentifully  relieved;  and 
thus  he  spent  his  two  days  of  pastime." 

Rigorous  laws  were  passed  year  after 
year  to  check  the  progress  of  Lutheran 
doctrines.  In  October,  1529,  Charles  V  or- 
dained that  the  "reading,  purchasing,  or 
possessing  any  proscribed  books  or  any  New 
Testaments  prohibited  by  the  theologians  of 
Louvain,  attendance  at  any  meeting  of  her- 
etics, disputing  about  Holy  Scripture,  want 
of  due  respect  to  the  images  of  God  and  the 
Saints"  were  crimes  for  which  "men  were 
to  be  beheaded,  women  buried  alive,  and 
the  relapsed  burnt."  In  spite  of  these  ter- 
rible measures,  Lutheranism  continued  to 
make  rapid  progress;  the  Emperor  in  re- 
venge issued  fresh  edicts,  more  severe  than 
before.  Informers  were  encouraged  by  a 
share  in  the  confiscated  goods  of  all  con- 

[51] 


TYNDALE  BETRAYED 


[52] 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


victed  heretics,  and  lest  the  officials  should 
be  mild,  all  who  were  remiss  were  punished. 
The  inquisition  had  full  authority  to  seize 
all  suspected  persons,  to  torture,  to  execute, 
without  appeal  from  their  sentence;  and 
these  tyrannical  powers  they  exercised  with 
relentless  cruelty.  Charles  V  was  not  one 
whit  less  ferocious  than  his  son  PhiHpII. 

From  these  bloody  measures  Tyndale  was 
safe  in  the  "English  House";  outside  he  had 
no  protection.  His  enemies  thirsted  for  his 
blood. 

Henry  Philips,  a  smooth,  treacherous  vil- 
lain, came  over  and  won  the  confidence  of 
the  simple-minded  scholar,  who  lent  him 
forty  shillings.  The  plans  being  ripe,  the 
Judas  Philips  invited  the  translator  out  to 
dinner  and  then  arrested  him  through  the 
Emperor's  attorney,  brought  from  Brussels, 
and  put  him  in  charge  of  Adolph  Van  Wesele, 
Lieutenant  of  the  Castle  of  Vilvorde,  the 
great  state  prison  of  the  Low  Countries, 
May  23  or  24,  1535.  So  skilful,  secret,  and 
prompt  had  been  the  arrest  that  probably 
no  one  knew  of  it  till  the  Emperor's  Pro- 
cureur- General,  the  terrible  Pierre  Dufief, 
came  to  search  Tyndale's  chamber  and  carry 
off  his  books,  papers,  and  other  effects. 
[53] 


[54] 


Ty7idale's  Death  in  Holland 


The  English  merchants,  aggrieved  by  the 
loss  of  an  esteemed  friend  and  by  this 
treacherous  assault  on  their  rights  and  priv- 
ileges, wrote  to  the  Queen  Regent,  Mary 
of  Hungary,  entreating  her  to  release  Tyn- 
dale.  King  Henry  VIII  and  Cromwell  were 
appealed  to,  and  Cromwell,  with  the  king's 
consent,  wrote  to  Carondolet,  Archbishop 
of  Palermo,  and  the  Marquis  of  Bergen- op - 
Zoom,  two  of  the  most  influential  members 
of  the  Imperial  Government.  Poyntz  de- 
livered the  letters,  suffered  labor,  loss,  im- 
prisonment, risked  his  life  for  his  friend; 
but  it  was  in  vain. 

As  Paul  in  prison  converted  the  jailer 
of  Philippi,  so  Tyndale  in  prison  converted 
the  keeper,  his  daughter,  and  others  of  his 
household;  and  the  rest  that  became  ac- 
quainted with  him  said  that  if  he  were 
not  a  good  Christian  man,  they  could  not 
tell  whom  to  trust.  Even  the  Procureur- 
General  called  him  "a  learned,  good,  and 
godly  man." 

A  single  Latin  letter,  written  to  the 
Governor  of  the  Castle,  Antoine  de  Berghes, 
Marquis  of  Bergen-op-Zoom,  is  all  the  auto- 
graph we  have  of  this  noble  man  of  God; 
it  is  as  follows:   "I  beheve.  Right  Worshipful, 

[55] 


r^      3  i  V  If  I- 


'I 


^l 


I 


,v<=> 


5^ 


i  4  i 


^i_ 


Sill  «  "i    -    «  -s    5 


[561 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


\ 


that  you  are  not  ignorant  of  what  has  been 
determined  concerning  me  [by  the  Council 
of  Brabant];  therefore  I  entreat  Your  Lord- 
ship, and  that  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  that,  if 
I  am  to  remain  here  during  the  winter,  you 
will  request  the  Procureur  to  be  kind  enough 
to  send  me  from  my  goods,  which  he  has  in 
his  possession,  a  warmer  cap;  for  I  suffer 
extremely  from  cold  in  the  head,  being 
afflicted  with  a  perpetual  catarrh,  which  is 
considerably  increased  in  this  cell.  A  warmer 
coat  also,  for  that  which  I  have  is  very  thin; 
also  a  piece  of  cloth  to  patch  my  leggings: 
my  overcoat  is  worn  out;  my  shirts  are  also 
worn  out.  He  has  a  woolen  shirt  of  mine, 
if  he  will  be  kind  enough  to  send  it.  I  have 
also  with  him  leggings  of  thicker  cloth  for 
putting  on  above;  he  also  has  warmer  caps 
for  wearing  at  night.  I  wish  also  his  per- 
mission to  have  a  lamp  at  evening,  for  it  is 
wearisome  to  sit  alone  in  the  dark.  But 
above  all  I  entreat  and  beseech  Your  Clem- 
ency to  be  urgent  with  the  Procureur  that 
he  may  kindly  permit  me  to  have  my  He- 
brew Bible,  Hebrew  grammar,  and  Hebrew 
dictionary  that  I  may  spend  my  time  with 
that  study.  And,  in  return,  may  you  obtain 
your   dearest   wish,   provided   always   it   be 

[571 


158] 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


consistent  with  the  salvation  of  your  soul. 
But  if,  before  the  end  of  the  winter,  a  dif- 
ferent decision  be  reached  concerning  me, 
I  shall  be  patient,  abiding  the  will  of  God 
to  the  glory  of  the  grace  of  my  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  whose  Spirit,  I  pray,  may  ever  direct 
your  heart.    Amen.     W.  Tindale." 

James  Masson,  known  as  Latomus,  who 
had  attacked  Erasmus  and  also  Luther, 
writes:  "When  William  Tyndale  was  in 
prison  for  Lutheranism,  he  wrote  a  book  on 
the  theme  'Faith  Alone  Justifies  before 
God';  this  he  called  his  key  to  the  healthy 
understanding  of  Sacred  Scripture.  We  re- 
plied in  three  books"  —  rather  mildly. 

The  doctors  of  Louvain  had  thanked 
Beaton  for  burning  Patrick  Hamilton  in 
Scotland  and  promised  "there  shall  be  those 
among  externe  nations  which  shall  imitate 
the  same."  Now  they  had  the  opportunity 
to  imitate,  and  they  used  it.  Tyndale  was 
tried  for  heresy.  "It  is  no  great  matter 
whether  they  that  die  on  account  of  religion 
be  guilty  or  innocent,  provided  we  terrify 
the  people  by  such  examples;  which  gen- 
erally succeeds  best  when  persons  eminent 
for  learning,  riches,  nobility,  or  high  station 
are   thus   sacrificed,"    said   Ruwart   Tapper, 

[59] 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


Doctor  of  Theology,  Chancellor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Louvain,  one  of  the  judges,  fore- 
most among  the  accusers  of  Tyndale  and 
most  relentless  in  opposition  to  him. 

"If  they  shall  burn  me,  they  shall  do 
none  other  thing  than  that  I  look  for,"  Tyn- 
dale had  said  long  ago  when  they  were 
burning  his  Bibles;  "there  is  none  other 
way  into  the  kingdom  of  life  than  through 
persecution  and  suffering  of  pain  and  of 
very  death,  after  the  ensample  of  Christ." 

On  August  5  James  de  Lattre,  inquisitor 
apostolic  of  the  Low  Countries,  deeded  his 
powers  to  Ruard  Tapper.  Soon  after,  Tyn- 
dale was  degraded,  likely  in  the  usual 
manner.  To  the  bishops  seated  on  a  high 
platform  the  victim  was  led,  robed  in  his 
priestly  vestments,  and  made  to  kneel.  His 
hands  were  scraped  as  a  symbol  of  the  loss 
of  the  anointing  oil;  the  bread  and  the  wine 
were  placed  in  his  hands  and  then  taken 
away;  he  was  stripped  of  his  vestments  and 
clothed  as  a  layman.  The  presiding  bishop 
then  turned  him  over  to  the  secular  officer. 

The  martyr  sent  a  letter  to  Poyntz  by 
the  keeper  of  the  castle,  who  warmly  com- 
pared Tyndale's  behavior  in  prison  with  that 
of  the  apostles. 

[60] 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


Early  in  October,  1536,  Tyndale  was 
strangled  to  death,  and  then  his  body  was 
burned.  "He  cried  at  the  stake  with  a  loud 
voice,  'Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's 
eyes!'  " 

Tyndale's  dying  prayer  was  heard.  At 
the  very  time  of  the  martyr's  fiery  death 
the  first  Bible  printed  on  English  soil  came 
from  the  press,  printed  by  the  king's  own 
patent  printer  Berthelet,  or  Godfrey.  It  was 
Tyndale's  revised  New  Testament,  with  his 
prologs,  and  his  name  openly  set  forth  on 
the  title-page;  it  closed  with  the  words: 
"God  saue  the  Kynge  and  all  his  well- 
wyllers." 

Tyndale  fought  a  good  fight;  he  finished 
his  course;  he  kept  the  faith;  he  made  good 
his  vow:  "I  will  cause  a  boy  that  driveth 
the  plow  shall  know  more  of  the  Scripture 
than  thou  doest."  When  Bishop  Stokesley  of 
London  sneered  at  the  Word  of  God  which 
every  cobbler  was  reading  in  his  mother 
tongue,  Bishop  Fox  of  Hereford  replied,  "The 
lay  people  do  now  know  the  Holy  Scriptures 
better  than  many  of  us." 

"Evil-favored  in  this  world  and  without 
grace  in  the  sight  of  men,  speechless  and 
rude,  dull  and  slow-witted"  —  is  the  picture 

[61] 


Tyndale's  Death  in  Holland 


Tyndale  paints  of  himself.  Even  if  true, 
what  of  it?  Fox  calls  him  "the  Apostle  of 
England";  the  North  American  Review  con- 
siders him  "the  chief  of  the  English  re- 
formers"; the  Christian  Observer  says: 
"Few  are  adequately  conscious  what  an 
imperishable  debt  of  gratitude  is  due  his 
memory";  the  British  Quarterly  judges  him 
"perhaps  the  greatest  benefactor  that  our 
native  country  ever  enjoyed";  Froude  says 
his  "epitaph  is  the  Reformation." 

In  1866  his  admiring  countrymen  reared 
to  his  memory  a  cross -crowned  lofty  and 
massive  monument  on  Nibley  Knoll  in 
Gloucestershire,  and  in  1884  Lord  Salisbury 
unveiled  another  by  J.  E.  Boehm  in  the 
Thames  Embankment  Gardens,  near  White- 
hall Court  and  in  1913  another  was  put  up 
at  Vilvorde  with  inscriptions  in  English, 
Latin,  French,  and  Flemish,  and  he  is  hon- 
ored in  Concordia  Seminary,  St.  Louis,  and 
the  Hterary  grace  of  Tyndale's  Bible  is  the 
proud  boast  of  all  the  educated  English- 
speaking  world,  "the  most  splendid  literary 
monument  of  the  genius  of  our  native 
tongue,"  as  H.  W.  Hoare  writes. 


162] 


CHAPTER  FOUR 
TYND ALE'S  INFLUENCE 

In  1535  or  1536  Miles  Coverdale  issued 
the  Biblia,  Translated  out  of  Douche  and 
Latyn  into  English.  "He  was  especially  in- 
debted to  Luther's  Bible,"  says  Professor 
Pattison;  and  again,  "The  influence  of  Lu- 
ther is  very  apparent."  At  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Coverdale  attended  the  meetings  at 
the  White  Horse,  called  "Germany,"  because 
of  the  Lutheran  opinions  held  there.  Later 
he  was  twice  a  Lutheran  pastor  at  Berg- 
zabern,  in  Zweibruecken,  also  the  Bishop  of 
Exeter.  He  had  a  considerable  share  in  the 
introduction  of  German  spiritual  culture  to 
English  readers.  The  first  hymns  sung  by 
Protestant  Englishmen  were  the  forty-one 
"Goostly  Psalmes  and  Spirituall  Songs" 
which  Coverdale  translated  from  Luther 
and  others,  in  the  original  meter,  so  that 
they  were  sung  to  the  original  Lutheran 
melodies.  Under  Bloody  Mary  the  book 
was  forbidden,  to  the  great  loss  of  English 
hymnology,  as  Herford  laments. 

In  1537  Matthew's  Bible  appeared,  Tyn- 
dale's  Bible,  with  the  untranslated  portions 
1631 


MILES  COVERDALE,  BISHOP  OF  EXETER 


[64] 


Tyndale's  Influence 


of  his  Old  Testament  pieced  out  with  Cover- 
dale's  translation,  done  by  John  Rogers, 
chaplain  to  the  merchant  adventurers  at 
Antwerp.  About  1536  Rogers  went  to  Wit- 
tenberg, matriculated  on  November  25,  1540, 
and  was  a  pastor  in  Saxony.  Hoare  writes: 
"It  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  excessive 
Lutheranism  of  its  annotation,  in  which  it 
out-Tyndales  Tyndale  himself,"  and  it  has 
the  "character  of  a  Lutheran  manifesto." 
Rogers  was  the  first  martyr  under  Bloody 
Mary,  Monday,  February  4,  1555,  "he  has 
been  burned  alive  for  being  a  Lutheran;  but 
he  died  persisting  in  his  opinion,"  wrote 
Count  Noailles,  the  French  ambassador  in 
London. 

Richard  Taverner,  a  London  lawyer,  the 
translator  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  and 
the  Apology,  prepared  a  Bible,  based  on 
Matthew's,  printed  in  London  in  two  editions 
in  1539;  it  is  prefaced  by  a  manly  dedication 
to  the  King. 

The  "Great  Bible"  appeared  in  1539  — 
practically  Tyndale's  work;  the  martyr  now 
triumphed  gloriously.  The  "Great  Bible" 
was  presented  by  Coverdale  to  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  who  laid  it  before  the  King,  who 
"authorized"  it  and  had  it  set  up  in  every 

Tyndale  [65] 


ARCHBISHOP  CRANMER 


166] 


Tyndale's  Influence 


church  throughout  the  kingdom  and  com- 
mended by  the  clergy! 

Bonner  put  six  copies  in  St.  Paul's  and 
was  sore  distressed  to  find  people  persisted 
in  reading  them  even  during  the  public  ser- 
vices while  the  preacher  was  declaring  the 
Word  of  God.  The  title-page  told  that  "it 
was  oversene  and  perused  at  the  commande- 
ment  of  the  King's  Highness  by  the  ryghte 
reverende  fathers  in  God,  Cuthbert  bishop 
of  Duresme,  and  Nicholas  bishop  of  Roch- 
ester." And  who,  think  you,  was  this  "Cuth- 
bert of  Duresme"?  None  other  than  Tunstal, 
the  same  Cuthbert  who  had  refused  to  Tyn- 
dale  a  scholar's  room,  who  had  denounced 
and  burned  his  Bible.  This  Cuthbert  Tunstal 
officially  recommended  Tyndale's  work!  Tyn- 
dale  did  not  live,  labor,  and  die  in  vain! 

During  the  six  and  a  half  years  of  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI  thirteen  editions  of 
Bibles  and  thirty-five  of  Testaments  were 
published  in  England.  The  days  of  Bloody 
Mary  were  not  good  days  for  Protestants 
and  Bibles.  But  when  Elizabeth  made  her 
entry  into  London  and  arrived  at  "the  Little 
Conduit  in  Chepe,"  she  was  presented  with 
a  Bible.  "Raising  it  with  both  her  hands, 
the  Queen  presses  it  to  her  lips,  and  then 

167] 


[681 


Tyndale's  Influence 


laying  it  against  her  heart,  amid  the  enthusi- 
astic shouting  of  the  multitudes,  she  grace- 
fully thanks  the  city  for  so  precious  a  gift." 

Lord  Bacon  writes:  "On  the  morrow  of 
her  coronation,  it  being  the  custom  to  release 
prisoners  at  the  inauguration  of  a  prince,  .  .  . 
one  of  her  courtiers  .  .  .  besought  her  with 
a  loud  voice,  'That  now  this  good  time  there 
might  be  four  or  five  principal  prisoners 
more  released;  these  were  the  four  evan- 
gelists and  the  Apostle  St.  Paul,  who  had 
been  long  shut  up  in  an  unknown  tongue, 
as  it  were  in  prison,  so  as  they  could  not 
converse  with  the  common  people.' " 

In  1560  came  the  Geneva  Bible,  with  a 
dedication  "to  the  most  virtuous  and  noble 
Queen  Elizabeth."  For  the  first  time  Roman 
type  was  used,  and  the  chapters  were  divided 
into  verses.  The  monopoly  of  printing  it 
Elizabeth  granted  to  John  Bodley,  founder 
of  the  famous  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford. 
Eighty  editions  appeared. 

Archbishop  Parker  planned  the  Bishops' 
Bible  of  1568  —  "The  influence  of  Tyndale  is 
strongly  felt,"  and  of  the  notes  it  is  said, 
"their  sturdy  Protestantism  is  often  worthy 
of  Luther  himself." 

In  1611  came  the  King  James  Version, 
1691 


EDWARD  VI 


[701 


Tyndale's  Influence 


practically  Tyndale's  Bible.  The  Roman 
Catholic  scholar  Alexander  Geddes  writes: 
"Every  sentence,  every  word,  every  syllable, 
every  letter  and  point,  seem  to  have  been 
weighed  with  the  nicest  exactitude  and  ex- 
pressed with  the  greatest  precision."  The 
poet  Rogers  says:  "Oh,  the  exquisite  English 
of  the  Bible!  I  often  feel  as  if  the  translators 
as  well  as  the  original  writers  must  have 
been  inspired."  The  historian  John  Richard 
Green  says:  "As  a  mere  literary  monument 
the  English  of  the  Bible  remains  the  noblest 
example  of  the  Einglish  tongue,  while  its 
perpetual  use  made  it  from  the  instant  of 
its  appearance  the  standard  of  our  language." 
"In  Tyndale's  translation  we  find  most  of 
the  strength  as  well  as  most  of  the  sweet- 
ness of  the  Authorized  Version.  .  .  .  There  is 
a  graphic  simplicity  about  it  which  captures 
the  ear  at  once.  .  .  .  The  music  of  Tyndale's 
translation  with  equal  ease  rises  to  the 
stately  majesty  of  a  march  or  falls  to  the 
homelike  sweetness  of  a  mother's  lullaby. 
The  arrangement  of  words  of  some  sentences 
is  in  itself  triumphal."  The  Roman  Catholic 
Faber  writes:  "Who  will  not  say  that  the 
uncommon  beauty  and  marvelous  English 
of  the  Protestant  Bible  is  one  of  the  great 

1711 


BLOODY  MARY 


[72] 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH 


[73] 


Tyndale's  Influence 


strongholds  of  heresy  in  our  country?  It 
lives  on  the  ear  like  music  that  can  never 
be  forgotten,  like  the  sound  of  church-bells 
which  the  convert  hardly  knows  how  to 
forego.  Its  felicities  seem  to  be  things  rather 
than  words." 

"Of  the  translation  itself,  though  since 
that  time  it  has  been  many  times  revised 
and  altered,  we  may  say  that  it  is  substan- 
tially the  Bible  with  which  we  are  all 
familiar.  The  peculiar  genius  —  if  such  a 
word  may  be  permitted  —  which  breathes 
through  it,  the  mingled  majesty  and  tender- 
ness, the  preternatural  grandeur,  the  Saxon 
simplicity,  unequaled,  unapproached  in  the 
attempted  improvements  of  modern  scholars, 
all  are  here  and  bear  the  impress  of  the 
mind  of  one  man  —  William  Tyndale,"  says 
Froude. 

"From  1525  to  1884  the  best  Biblical 
scholarship  of  the  English  nation,  not  at- 
tempting to  supersede  Tyndale's  work,  has 
succeeded  only  in  bringing  a  matchless  work 
a  little  nearer  perfection.  Tyndale's  influ- 
ence in  fixing  the  standard  and  exhibiting 
the  noble  possibilities  of  the  English  lan- 
guage has  far  exceeded  that  of  any  other 
writer.    In  his  English  New  Testament  Tyn- 

[74] 


TYNDALE  MONUMENT 
NIBLEY  KNOLL,  GLOUCESTERSHIRE 


[75] 


Tyndale's  Influence 


dale  laid  the  'grand  foundation-stone  of 
England's  greatness'  and  conferred  the 
greatest  of  all  spiritual  blessings  on  all 
English-speaking  peoples." 

"That  Tyndale's  EngHsh  is  decidedly 
superior  to  the  writings  of  his  time  which 
have  come  down  to  us  cannot  be  disputed; 
it  is  a  noble  translation,  the  basis  of  every 
subsequent  English  version,  and  on  several 
accounts  better  than  all  subsequent  ver- 
sions; it  has  an  individuality  as  pronounced 
as  Luther's,  its  Saxon  is  racy  and  strong, 
sometimes  majestic,  and,  above  all  things, 
it  is  hearty  and  true.  The  reader  feels  that 
the  translator  felt  what  he  wrote,  that  his 
heart  was  in  his  work,  and  that  he  strove 
in  prayer  to  reproduce  in  his  own  mother 
tongue  to  the  very  best  of  his  ability  what 
he  believed  to  be  the  true  sense  of  the  Word 
of  God  as  he  understood  it." 

In  our  present  Bible  eighty  per  cent,  of 
Tyndale  has  been  retained  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  ninety  per  cent,  in  the  New,  and 
in  spite  of  many  revisions  almost  every  sen- 
tence is  substantially  the  same  as  Tyndale 
wrote  it.  No  greater  tribute  could  be  paid 
to  his  industry,  scholarship,  and  genius.  To 
him  we  owe  the  exceeding  beauty  and  tender 

[761 


177] 


STATUE  OF  TYNDALE  IN  LONDON 


[78] 


Tyndale's  Influence 


grace  of  the  language  of  our  present  Bible. 
For  felicity  of  diction  and  for  dignity  of 
rhythm,  Tyndale  never  has  been,  and  never 
can  be,  surpassed.  George  P.  Marsh  calls  it 
''the  first  classic  of  our  literature  —  the 
highest  exemplar  of  purity  and  beauty  of 
language  existing  in  our  speech.  .  .  .  When 
we  study  our  Testaments,  we  are  in  most 
cases  perusing  the  identical  words  penned 
by  the  martyr  Tyndale  nearly  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago." 

Dore  speaks  of  Tyndale's  "strong  Lu- 
theran bias";  Bishop  Marsh  says:  "His 
translation  was  taken  at  least  in  part  from 
Luther's";  Cardinal  Gasquet  says:  "Luther's 
direct  influence  may  be  detected  on  almost 
every  page  of  the  printed  edition  issued  by 
Tyndale."  McComb  says:  "Some  of  the 
happiest  renderings  in  our  English  New 
Testament  we  owe  indirectly  to  the  German 
Reformer."  Another  writes:  "Happily  our 
own  excellent  translation  of  the  Bible  still 
retains  striking  evidence  of  the  influence  of 
his  [Luther's]  admirable  version,  and  per- 
haps it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  two 
most  copious  and  energetic  languages  are 
greatly  indebted  to  him  [Luther]  for  their 
terseness  and  expression." 
179] 


WORKS  CONSULTED 

TYNDALE'S    Works,    edited  by    the    Rev.  Hy. 

Walter  for  the  Parker  Society. 
FOX'S  Acts  and  Monuments,  3  vols.    Fol.  9th  ed. 

London,  1684. 
FROUDE'S  History  oj  England. 
GREEN'S  History  of  the  English  People. 
DEMAUS'S  Wm.  Tyndale,  2d  ed. 
SMITH'S  Wvi.  Tyndale. 
MOZLEY'S  William  Tyndale. 
ANDERSON'S    Annals    of    the    English    Bible. 

Prime's  edition. 
MOMBERT'S  Handbook  of  the  English  Versions 

of  the  Bible. 
STOUGHTON'S  Our  English  Bibles. 
PATTISON'S  History  of  the  English  Bible. 
SMYTH'S  How  We  Got  Our  Bible. 
HOARE'S  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible. 
DOPE'S  Old  Bibles,  2d  ed. 
EADIE'S  English  Bibles,  2  vols. 
WESTCOTT'S  History  of  the  English  Bible. 
LOVETT'S  The  Printed  English  Bible. 

FRANCIS  FRY'S  Bibliographical  Description  of 
the  Editions  of  the  New  Testament.  Tyndale's 
Version. 

GASQUET'S  Eve  of  the  Reformation. 
[80] 


Works  Consulted 


MARSH'S   Lectures   on   the   English   Language, 

4th  ed.,  1862. 
MUIR'S  Our  Grand  Old  Bible. 
McCOMB'S   The   Making  of  the   English   Bible. 
ADAMS'S  Great  English  Churchmen. 
MARSHALL'S  Dayspring. 
MOULTON'S  Library  Literary  Criticism. 
GARNETT  AND  GOSSE'S  III.  Hist.  Engl.  Lit. 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
The  English  Bible  in  the  John  Rylands  Library. 
Exeter  Hall  Lectures,  1851—52. 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.85. 
Nineteenth  Century,  1898,  1899. 
Harper's,  March,  1902. 
Academy,  1884. 
Athenaeum,  1885. 
Christian  Observer,  1867,  1872. 
North  American  Review,  1848. 
III.  London  News,  May,  1884. 
North  British  Review,  Vol.  5. 
London  Review,  Vol.  39. 
Argosy,  Vol.  30. 


Tyndale  [81] 


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[841 


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